St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church History

A Brief History of the Founding of St John the Baptist Orthodox Church, Nesquehoning, PA.

At the turn of the 20^th Century, many Eastern Europeans who were looking for a better life in America left their ancestral homelands. Among these immigrants were our forefathers and foremothers who left their homeland in the Carpathian Mountains, a portion of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in today’s Eastern Slovakia, Western and South-eastern Poland. Our people faced many hardships in America. They were looked down on by other Americans who had come here before them. The Carpatho-Rusyn people were now trying to live in a country whose culture and language were strange, yet our people were determined to survive and prosper in their new country. They accepted low-paying and dangerous jobs in mines, mills, and factories. Because they were not afraid to work hard to make a living, a characteristic which they brought with them from "the Old Country", our immigrant forefathers and foremothers not only survived, but prospered in this great country. But neither their strong work ethic nor their desire to prosper was the main reason our Carpatho-Rusyn people survived and prospered in this country. They survived and prospered here because of their deep faith in God, which was expressed in the faith and liturgical life of their beloved Greek Catholic Church. Wherever they settled, including the mining town of Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, the priority of these God-fearing Slavic immigrants was to build a church where they could worship God according to the sacred rites of the Slavonic Eastern-Rite Church.

These Churches were built in the Slavic-Byzantine style, capped with onion domes and three-bar crosses. Inside, icons of our Lord and the saints reminded our people that the Kingdom of God was near, in their church, the heart of their community. Our people received their spiritual strength from singing and chanting the Divine Liturgy, Matins, Vespers, and all the holy services of the Church in a language they understood. They prayed to God, the Most Holy Trinity, in their mother tongue, and God answered their prayers in a language they understood. In the sanctuaries of their Churches, they found comfort worshiping the Lord in the sacred rites which our Holy Fathers, Saints Cyril and Methodius, the Apostles to the Slavs, brought to their ancient homeland in the ninth century. It was in the social life of their parishes that the rich Carpathian cultural heritage of our people was preserved. This was true in many immigrant communities in America, and it was true in the Eastern Rite parish in Nesquehoning.

Then trouble came to the Greek Catholic Eastern Rite community of Nesquehoning and to the Greek Catholic Church in America. The Roman Church attempted to "Latinize" the Eastern Rite Church, introducing certain "Western devotions" to the Church. Rome decreed that all priests ordained in the future could no longer marry prior to ordination, and all church properties would no longer be owned by the congregation, but by the bishop. The Greek Catholic parish in Nesquehoning was split over whether to accept these changes. Having lost control of their parish in a court battle with the "pro-western" Greek Catholic bishop, parishioners who were against the Latinization of the Greek Catholic Church in general, and their parish in particular, met at the Sokol Citizens' Club in Nesquehoning on January 14, 1935, to decide how they could preserve the liturgical, spiritual, and administrative heritage that existed in the Greek Catholic Church.

The meeting was opened by Stephen Watto, President of the Sokol Citizens' Club. The following officers were elected to conduct this meeting: Peter Taptich, president; Michael Thear, secretary, who wrote the minutes in English, and Stephen Swigar, secretary, who wrote the minutes in Rusyn. The Rev. Father Andrew Slepecky, was also invited to this meeting. Father Slepecky presented to those gathered at this meeting a lecture on the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church, urging the people to sever ties to the Church of Rome and be loyal to the Orthodox Church. The Orthodox Church was the Church to which their ancestors belonged before the Union of Uzhorod of 1646, when many Orthodox priests and lay people united with Rome, while maintaining the liturgical practices of the Orthodox Church. Realizing that their Eastern Christian spiritual and liturgical heritage could only be preserved by reuniting with the Orthodox Church, Frank Evanilla proposed that the Greek Catholics at the meeting break with Rome and organize a new parish (Religious corporation) under the protection of the Orthodox Church. The motion passed, and an incorporation committee was elected with instructions to formally incorporate the new parish in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The incorporation committee was made up of Joseph Hydro, Wash Mitsak, Metro Malatak, Peter Taptich, and John Macenka. The people at this meeting chose as the protector and patron saint of this new Orthodox parish, St. John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ, who pointed to Jesus and said: "Behold the Lamb of God" (John 1:36). The new parish was to be formally incorporated as St. John the Baptist American-Russian Orthodox Church of the Eastern Rite. At this first meeting at the Sokol Citizens' Club, it was decided to organize a Church Lodge. The following officers were elected to begin the lodge: Andrew Gayda, president; John J. Mosko, vice president; Wash Tyahla, secretary; and Andrew Kashlak, treasurer.

The meeting at which the organization of St. John the Baptist Church was fully completed was held in Ferko's Hall on West Catawissa Street on January 20, 1935. At this meeting, Father Michael Sotak of Berwick, Pennsylvania, was asked to take charge of the spiritual needs of our parish. With episcopal approval, Father Sotak accepted the call to be our first pastor. The first Board of Trustees was elected at this meeting as well. Elected to this first Board of Trustees were the following men: John Watto, president; George Lazorchick, vice president; Michael Roscoe, financial secretary; Andrew Kashlak, recording secretary; Nicholas Fetsurka, Wash Telepchak, John Chornak, Frank Bortnik, George Slivka, Wash Mitsak, Stephen Ridnik, Joseph Hydro and Michael Andreosky, janitor. Thus, our parish was formally established.ln addition to the men named above who participated in these first organizational meetings of our parish, there were others present whose names were not recorded but are known forever in the eyes of Almighty God, and in our hearts, and who are commemorated in our liturgical prayers as the Founders, Benefactors, and Builders of St. John the Baptist American-Russian Orthodox Church.

Our first pastor, Father Michael Sotak, was a dedicated Orthodox priest who worked hard to care for the spiritual needs of his flock. But he was the pastor of a congregation that had no church building. Until a permanent house of worship could be built, Father Sotak had to serve the Divine Liturgy and all other Church services in Ferko's Hall. In March of 1935, the lots on West Railroad Street were purchased and dedicated to God as the place where the church would be built. And in May of 1935, a church building committee was elected, consisting of Fr. Michael Sotak, Michael Skerchock, Metro Malatak, Stephen M. Bamo, and Andrew B. Hallahan. The building committee, together with the Board of Trustees, immediately began work to build a permanent house of worship The architectural 1935. firm of McClane and Barre, PA, was hired to design an Orthodox church which would be a splendid and magnificent Temple dedicated to the worship of the Holy Trinity.

On August 24, 1935, Mr. Andrew Garber of Scranton, Pennsylvania, was selected as the contractor to build our church. Mr. Garber was granted permission by the architects to use “huge steel girders of World War I vintage” so there would be no posts or support columns under the central dome and nave of St. John the Baptist Church. Mr. Garber explained then that the lack of posts and support columns under the dome would contribute to the building of an Orthodox Church of unique and unsurpassed beauty in its construction and Byzantine architectural style. On Armistice Day (Veteran’s Day, today), November 11, 1935, the Cornerstone was dedicated by Archbishop Adam Philipovsky of the Carpatho-Russian Administration of the Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A., Patriarchal Exarchate. As work on the Church progressed, our people continued to worship at Ferko's Hall. The Trustees, the Janitor of the Church, Michael Andreosky, and his wife, Mary, did all they could to make the hall a beautiful place for worship. In 1936, the Sokol Citizens' Club of Nesquehoning generously donated three bells for our church. The bells were purchased from the McClure Bell Company of Baltimore, Maryland. On Memorial Day, May 30, 1936, the bells were christened and named for St Michael, St. Nicholas, and St. John the Baptist, our patron saint. Our people generously donated the sacred liturgical vestments, chalice set, gospel book, and every sacred object needed for the Divine Liturgy. Fr. Michael Sotak donated the kadilo (censer), which has been used by every priest who has served as pastor of this holy church. Pews were purchased from M. Miller Company, Scranton, on December 20, 1936, and the first Divine Liturgy was served in St. John the Baptist Church by Fr. Sotak. A dream was fulfilled on that great day when our people had a church in which they could worship Almighty God according to the sacred rites of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Not only did our founding pastor, but fathers and mothers built a church; they built one of the most beautiful Churches in the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese, a diamond in the crown of Christ's Holy Orthodox Church. The first cantor of our parish was Dimitri Pelesh, assisted by Andrew Malinchoc, who later became the head cantor. In the early years of our parish, a choir was formed to sing the responses at the Divine Liturgy. A sidewalk was put around the church, the church grounds were sodded, and the current parish house or rectory was purchased. Beautiful stained-glass windows were purchased and installed by the Mahon Art Glass Company of Wilkes-Barre. St. John's also had a baseball team, "The Russians", which won two league titles in the Nesquehoning Church League.

Another problem that the parish faced when it was formed was the absence of a cemetery. The need for holy ground in which to bury our faithful departed prompted the parish to purchase a piece of heavily wooded land, strewn with boulders, from the Lehigh Navigation and Coal Company. Our cemetery, which was really a forest at the time, was consecrated on February 8, 1935, the day of burial for Vasily Barna, the first parishioner to fall asleep in the Lord. Realizing that this forest needed to be transformed into a cemetery worthy to receive the earthly remains of God's holy people, men and boys from our parish went to work to clear the land of trees and all wild growth. After putting in back-breaking days in the coal mines, the men of our parish, assisted by many of our boys, volunteered to work until the forest became a cemetery. The ladies of the church cooked for our cemetery workers. Only with the aid of mules loaned to our people from the coal company could the deeply rooted tree stumps and huge boulders be removed from the land. With God's help and hard work from our parishioners, St. John's Cemetery became a fitting, serene and hallowed place of rest for our departed parishioners.

In 1940, St. John's celebrated the 5th anniversary of its founding. The parish by now had joined the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese, headed by His Excellency, Bishop Orestes P. Chomock. May 30th, 1940, was a great day in the history of our young parish. Bishop Orestes had come to Nesquehoning not only to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the founding of our parish, but also to serve the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy and consecrate the magnificent new altar with its beautiful canopy holding the Icon of the Holy Trinity, the Mother of God, and St. John the Baptist. Bishop Orestes also blessed the tabernacle on the Holy Altar, which would house the reserved Holy Eucharist and sacred chrism. In his homily, Bishop Orestes inspired our people with these words: "Your church is divine. You can always feel at home in her". Our first bishop also reminded our parishioners that the true strength of their church would depend on their respect for the Divine Eucharist on their holy altar. He said it was not enough for them to come to the chalice to receive Holy Communion. "You have to live the Eucharistic by daily living your God-given Orthodox faith and thus promoting the Kingdom of God on earth. The celebration continued with a festive banquet at which Bishop Orestes was the guest of honor, and a church dance held at Ferko's Hall. Father Sotak and his dedicated parishioners started with nothing material in 1935. But their strong Orthodox faith saw them through the first five hard years of the parish's existence. Now, St. John's was an established parish in our diocese. The history of our parish, taken from the Fifth Anniversary booklet, ended with these moving words:

May God hear the prayers of our Bishop at this altar and send His heavenly blessing upon the members of our Church; that they dare to go on, and live in peace, as children of the heavenly Father.

FORMER PRIESTS OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST ORTHODOX CHURCH, NESQUEHONING, PA

+Reverend Father Michael Sotak - 1935-1943

+Very Reverend Father Protopresbyter John Zeleniak 1943-1952

+Very Reverend Protopresbyter Michael Sopoliga, 1952-1994 (Longest serving 42 years).

Very Reverend Father Ronald Kovac, 1994-1995, Retired, living in Florida

+Very Reverend Father Michael Psenechuk 1995-1999

The Very Reverend Father Lev Holowaty, 1999-2001. Currently, the Pastor of Descent of the Holy Spirit Orthodox Church, Schererville, Indiana

The Very Reverend Father Robert J. Teklinski, 2001-2022. Currently, the Pastor of St John the Baptist in East Pittsburgh, PA

The Very Reverend Protopresbyter Joseph Fester, Retired Interim, Serving St. John’s and St Nicholas in Lansford, 2023 to Present